Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — Oil Fuel for War Ships. [ARTICLE]

Oil Fuel for War Ships.

A writer in a recent number of the He vista Nauiica remarks that all the groat naval powers Imvo been experimenting with petroleum fuel. In 1 «9il many of the Italian war ships carried a supply of ttsiaki to be used as ,un adjunct to their ordinary fuel supply, while many of the torpedo-boats were fitted to use it exclusively. England is stilled lo liuvc in ado the most progress in this lino, while Russia, to whom the mutter Is of special Importance, owing to her enormous supplies of petroleum, comes second. The advantages of the liquid, it is slutod, comprise a reduction in the weight and volume of combustible required for a given horsepower lu Hie engines. An increased rudins of action is thus obtained. The oilcan, moreover tin stored tit least pari l* ally below water line, out of the way of •liejle. There is no fear of spontuueoue combustion of the oil, such as occasionally occurs with coal, and being tree from sulphur, tliu oil fuel is not likely to deteriorate the boiler shell or tubes. The operation of firing, so arduous with coat, becomes extremely easy with petroleum, and once tho draught is properly adjusted, there is no stream of telltale llame front the funnels of the boat. The furnace doors can be kept closed, thus avoiding the rush of cold air on to the boiler, which occurs every time fresh coal is placed on the furnace grate. Tile operation of ••coaling,” if one may use the term, becomes also extremely simple, ami cHn be carried out successfully in mid-ocean an I in rough weather. The evaporative power of tlie oil is, weight for weight, superior to that of coal and in practice 15,290 pounds of water have been evaporated from lieat at 213 degrees Fahrenheit, with one pound of oil, that theoretically due being about 20.5 pounds. "Some of onr chief authorities on power appear to be of the opinion that liquid fuel is likely to displace coal in the near future over a large area,” says the iron and Trades Review. "The residue of the distillation of petroleum or shale oil, known by the name of mazouth and nstatkis, is successfully used on more than seventy-two locomotives on the Volga railwar. In England there has recently been constructed a torpedo boat of about eighty-six tons displacement. She has a double bottom divided up into eight water-tight compartments, which are used as hulks or bunkers for the oil and which holds from fifleen tons to sixteen tons. As these compartments are emptied of the liquid fuel they are filled with water, so that the draught an I stability of the boat remains always the same. This boa ’s engines are ordinary triple-expansion. The boiler is of the ordinary locomotive type, with the special fittings necessary for liquid-fuel burning. It is fitted with thirty-one oil jets, which arc feii by a Worthington pump, which draws the fuel from the double bottom and delivers it into a cylindrical lank, where it is put uuder air pressure. It has been claimed that the results of all trials up to the present time have been to show that there are only two ways of burning liquid fuel, viz.: either by menus of atomizers for large powers or gasifiers for small powers. Of course, in England, where coal is cheap, and oil or petroleum so relatively dear, we could hardly expect the latter to make sucli headway as in Russia or the Balkan states.”